Finishing trim products have been widely used in the construction industry. These products are designed so that imperfections in the fit of building components can be covered in order to produce a more aesthetically pleasing finished product. Trims provide an advantage in that rather than having to have all components of a building (e.g., drywall, window frames, etc.) fit perfectly, these component can be roughly finished, saving time in construction and as a result, the cost of the finished building.
In the past, most prior art finishing elements such as baseboards, window casings and the like have been secured to a building by simple fastening methods such as nails, screws tacks, glues and other fastening. The disadvantage of these prior art products is that the fasteners mar the surface of the trim piece, requiring that they be filled, and or/painted in order to make the fastener less obvious to the eye. A further disadvantage is that over time the fill and/or paint can degrade, such that the fastener is now seen again, requiring ongoing maintenance to keep up the look of the finishing trim piece. In simple trim systems, where the trim piece is glued to a surface, there is an additional disadvantage in that as the glue degrades over time, the trim piece may come loose, there being nothing else to keep it in place, and the finishing trim can simply fall away from the surface to which it was originally installed.
Another disadvantage of prior art systems is that simply nailing a piece of trim to a wall or window casing, for example, does not guarantee a quality fit. It is well-known that in order to save time and costs, builder frequently pay little attention to details of finishing and as a result, baseboards and window casings, as well as other finishing elements, may not be particularly carefully installed, with the result that the overall appearance of the construction is diminished. Such free hand installation systems suffer from the inability to easily align the trim piece for optimal look and fit.
A variety of solutions have been attempted to improve the art of finishing trims. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,463,539 (Simon) describes a channel adapted to receive a molding piece. U.S. Pat. No. 5,179,811 (Walker) describes a system to install crown moldings at the junction between a wall and ceiling in a room. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,233,804 (Miller) describes a corner protector device that comprises a clip attached to the corner of a wall, and an overlying protector that engages the clip.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,148,584 (Wilson) describes a plastic attachment strip onto in which a spline engages part of the trim piece. However, this particular solution is awkward to use as it requires the trim to be applied in two separate pieces onto the attachment system, increasing the difficulty of installation and likelihood that parts will not be well-aligned in the finished product. A modified version of the installation system described in the '584 patent uses two attachment clips, for example, one on the facing trim, and a second on the door jamb portion, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,560,944 (Wilson). This solution is in fact more complicated than the earlier system described in the '584 patent as it now requires two attachment clips to be installed.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,748,179 (Schiedeggar et al.) describes a decorative molding that fits over a mantelpiece mounted on a structure. However, this system requires multiple components, including end covers, in order to complete the finished appearance.
Thus, because of the limitations in the prior art approaches to finishing trims, what is needed is a simple system that permits the snapping into place of a completely finished trim piece such that the trim piece is not marred by fasteners, and which is readily adaptable to a range of installation locations.